Audiophiles! The ear pleasing sounds of Soundtrack Central has returned after some time off. There’s a bunch of new games to catch up on and as usual, I’ve grabbed a new trio of games that feature wonderful soundtracks. So crank up that volume as we examine these three games in greater detail.

Songs and information await you after the jump…

Titanfall
Arguably, Early 2014’s most anticipated release for the Xbox One hit store shelves with glowing reviews and hungry gamers ready to dive into this world. What may have surprised many people is the well made soundtrack put together by Stephen Barton, who many of you may remember from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 days. Stephen has created a truly dynamic and evolving soundtrack which manages to capture the theme of the game greatly. Not sticking to one style, Titanfall’s music tends to blend themes together hitting on sounds that can be described as emotional, haunting, and even militant. Certain tracks like ‘Here Be Dragons!’ sounds like something pulled from a major theatrical score from a big budget action movie. In fact, the same can be said for many of the tracks as they incorporate strong orchestral sounds infused with electronic elements such as “Peace and Order By Force.” Certain songs are also inspired by the different factions in the game. “When Two Sides Go To War” represents both sides very well featuring an almost “western style” to it and mixing in more orchestral and electronic elements as it goes along.

inFAMOUS: Second Son
Sony’s inFAMOUS franchise has always featured excellent music typically set to more urban and city style sounds. Second Son continues the strong soundtrack tradition and even makes a case as being the best in the franchise. Put together by a combination of Brain, Nathan Johnson, and Marc Canham, Second Son mashes together driving percussion elements, loud guitar solos, and a bit of sampling to tie everything up. For a game set in Seattle, it’s absolutely perfect. The music itself is pretty dynamic If you’ve played the game, the soundtrack also manages to capture specific moments, so listening to a song may bring up memories of a specific event, which is also pretty cool. A real standout track for me is ‘Wavelength’ as it just feels like inFAMOUS. It sounds like a track that could fit in any of the games and just works so well with the style and grit of the series. Heavy percussion, screeching violins, melodic guitars, and minor sampling all come together to form a very strong track.

Mercenary Kings
Recently released by the gang over at Tribute Games (Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game), Mercenary Kings manages to blend an old school visual style with 2D side scrolling action shooter gameplay reminiscent of Metal Slug. To go along with the retro look, composer Patrice Bourgeault managed to combine catchy themes that would fit extremely well in old school games from the NES and SNES era. Listen to “Greater Boss Theme” and then tell me you don’t hear a Contra game in there somewhere. The soundtrack relies heavily on synth effects layered on top of chiptune style music. What results is some extremely catchy sounds that will easily get stuck in your head for days after.